New Beltway battle erupts as debt limit deadline nears

DISCLAIMER: THE FOLLOWING "Cost of Freedom Recap" CONTAINS STRONG OPINIONS WHICH ARE NOT A REFLECTION OF THE OPINIONS OF FOX NEWS AND SHOULD NOT BE RELIED UPON AS INVESTMENT ADVICE WHEN MAKING PERSONAL INVESTMENT DECISIONS. IT IS FOX NEWS' POLICY THAT CONTRIBUTORS DISCLOSE POSITIONS THEY HOLD IN STOCKS THEY DISCUSS, THOUGH POSITIONS MAY CHANGE. READERS OF "Cost of Freedom Recap" MUST TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR OWN INVESTMENT DECISIONS.

NEW BATTLE ERUPTING IN DC

Charles Payne: Here we go again. You talk about an abusive power, an abusive influence. They all should be apologizing for that. We’ve raised the debt ceiling, I think about 74 times. But the bottom line is that what President Obama was talking about, comparing that to the financial crisis was really out of line. The real issue here is what the progressives have built, particularly on Obama’s administration, a utopia welfare system and they’ve run out of money. We took in this year I think $2.7 trillion this year. Money will be coming in. Everyone watching this show, when you get your check, those little lines with all those tax dollars, that will be coming out. Money will be flooding our government. We have to make a decision on what we want to spend it on. But, the money will come in, it won’t be Armageddon.

Adam Lashinsky: Senator Barack Obama in 2006 was wrong, obviously. Radicals like John Boehner and Paul Ryan know that it would be a really foolish thing to allow a default to happen. That’s what happens when countries like Argentina, Brazil and Russia do.

Ben Stein: I hate to say this, I think it started with Ronald Reagan cutting taxes too much. Ever since then, we’ve had an ongoing crisis. Clinton fixed it for a while, but we’ve had an ongoing crisis. Our taxes are just too low to support the kind of government we want. We have to grit our teeth and agree that we’re going to pay more taxes. It’s a horrible thing. I don’t like paying taxes, same as everybody else, but we’re not going to cut our spending.

Dagen McDowell: Even with the sequester cuts, both sides were unhappy about that. Ben’s not happy with the cuts that have been to defense. If you decide to cut one place, somebody’s going to hate it. This is an example of the ongoing dysfunction in government. In terms of scare tactics, Paul O’Neill, when he was the Secretary of Treasury, he threatened to quit if they didn’t raise the debt ceiling. He said, I’m not going to be in this job and do something unconstitutional. So, it goes both ways. You can do the math all you want, but I don’t want to play chicken with this. I don’t want to just not raise the debt ceiling and see what happens.

REP. PAUL RYAN'S COMMENTS SPARKING DEBATE ON WORK-LIFE BALANCE

Ben Stein: I think it’s insane, absolutely insane for a person to have one of the highest and most important jobs in the entire world to be saying that he has to be at his children’s soccer practice. If he doesn’t want the job, don’t take the job. It’s a full time job. It’s a gigantically important job. This is a hardworking man; no one doubts that he’s intelligent. He came up with all those complicated budgetary plans but this is crazy. This is a full time, 24/7 job. This is not a Brownie Troop Leader job.

Dagen McDowell: He shouldn’t have run for office if he was not willing to put in the hours required of it. He should not run for this job.

Charles Payne: I agree with Ben one million percent. You can have quality work and you don’t have to put in 80 hours of it. Of course it’s quality, but we’re talking about an amazing, demanding job. He knows what the job description is. By the way, this is one my biggest beefs with President Obama. I’ve never seen someone, Chief Executive, golf as much as him on the most unfortunate occasions. Now, Paul Ryan, give me a break. Really, give me a break. It’s ridiculous.

TWITTER'S CEO GIVING A THIRD OF HIS TWITTER STAKE TO EMPLOYEES

Dagen McDowell: I don’t think that you need to dictate in detail, which Hillary Clinton has done how CEOs should compensate their employees. If Twitter’s CEO wants to donate his shares to the people who works there, that’s fantastic. I don’t think it needs to come from a politician what you compensate your employees.

Charles Payne: There is a thing called profit sharing, it’s also known as a salary. You come to work, you get paid. You do a really good job, we’ve got extra cash, we’ll give you a bonus. It’s commendable, he’s mismanaged the company, had a really cavalier attitude. His stock has gone from almost 60 to 30. He probably felt guilt and needs to take another company public. I took my company public, and I gave away stock to people, I did not have to, and to be honest with you, at the end of the day I wish I hadn’t.

Ben Stein: The employees are already getting a very big size of revenue, so I don’t see why they should be compelled to give profit. If the employers want to give out profit, fine. But they’re taking it away from the retirees, and the teachers and the people are planning to use that money for their retirement, for their children’s college. That money doesn’t come out of thin air. The government telling them they have to do that is rank bolshevism.